Nqutu,

KwaZulu-Natal

Restaurant al fresco in the market area of the town of Nqutu; for women, Mthiyone Hair Salon: a disregarded “European” hair-piece drifts on the pavement near the hairdresser’s small daughter.  Next door to the “chemist”, for men, Freedom Salon barbers. The expression of jubilation at having vanquished apartheid and won a democracy is never far away.     

    Nearby there is Moosa’s Kitchen, for take-away through the hatch, or, for a covered eaterie, through the entrance to the discarded shipping container. Most people in the Nqutu area have never seen a ship or the sea which is a long 300 km away.  Note nearby in the green shop, cell (mobile) phone products advertised. 

(Above, and close-up right) Police-funded sign off a main road.  In 2006 a survey of 1,370 South African men revealed that 20% admitted to having raped a woman.

At the best butcher in the town of Bethel, a long handled hook is used to hang up strips of biltong to dry.

(Above left) An increasingly rare sight: the dome-shaped, silky thatched dwelling characteristic of traditional Zulu buildings.  Indeed, this one is not a home at all, but the museum shop outside the huge semi-circular Ncome River museum and memorial (above right) to warriors slain in what the Boers called the Battle of Blood River.  The architecture of the thatched structure is not authentic: there is a paved surround, a solid painted wooden door with a lock on it, and a band of concrete fill between the bottom of the thatch and the paving.

On the opposite bank of Blood River is the Boer memorial, including a vast laager of 57 life-size bronze ox wagons replicating the enclave coralled on 16 December 1838, a date of great importance in Afrikaner history. It was the occasion of their Covenant with God for saving them from slaughter by Zulu assegais. One can’t help but wonder whether the Boers’ victory was ensured not so much by deus ex machina as by their superior weaponry - firearms as against short-handled spears -  and that on horseback they harried to death the Zulu survivors who were all foot-soldiers.

   (Above left) Under the fortress-shaped hill known as Isandlwana, in 1879 1500 red-coated British soldiers suffered a massive and humiliating defeat before the tide of Zulu warriors sent by King Cetswayo to pick them out. The handful who happened to be wearing blue were ignored.  Today countless cairns of always freshly white-washed stones mark the mass graves ascending the hillsides where the British fell as they were pursued.

    (Above right) On the other side of the hill, is a monument to those in the four Zulu impis (regiments) who fell then and in later battles when the Zulus were vanquished by British firearms.  The large bronze semi-circular sculpture by Gert Swart is based on the isiqu, the martial necklace of carved wooden beads, threaded thorns, and the claws of the lion, traditionally worn by Zulu royalty and leaders.

   Tomorrow’s Zulu warriors fooling around for the camera, unaware that in shot behind them is the monumental hill of Isandlwana.        

   Twenty years ago rural boys would have been dressed in rags. Now such a sight is rare, indicating that in the region there is a well-organised charitable provider of clothing.

(Audio 5’ 18”)

  In Kwa-Zulu, Neville Worthington, formerly a farmer and now a tour guide, is fluent in the local languages, familiar with local politics, and knows the region like the back of his hand.  He is filled with regret that the promise that was once Mandela’s leadership has since been lost.

(Interviewed near Rorke’s Drift, February 2008.) 

Basket weavers on a quiet road-side, their handiwork intended for sale to businesses catering for tourists. They are sheltering from the fierce sunlight under a lean-to, sitting with the familiar, perfect posture of rural women in South Africa who don’t assume the need of a back-rest.

The scourge of HIV/Aids has meant a massive growth in the funeral industry.  It is not unusual, on the main road through a small town, to see several funeral shops in a row. Polls show that people attend funerals twice as often as weddings.

S O U T H   A F R I C A

OVERVIEW: The Poverty of Power

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KwaZulu-Natal  2008

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